Genealogy Research - And Odd or Unusual Names

I started working on my family genealogy soon after my father passed away when I was 24 years old.  I realized that I had never met any of my father's relatives, that I could remember.  In actuality, I saw several of them before I was four years old, and I believe Dad's sister visited us in Texas before I was 5.  Otherwise, Dad's family were just old photos from the 1940s and names.  I spoke with his sister-in-law on the day that he died on the telephone.  I really don't know why we didn't visit Dad's family over  the years - we visited his friends from 20-plus years in the Navy, and their families; and we spent most vacations on the island in Virginia, where Mom's family had lived for over 350 years.  But Dad's family?  I wouldn't have known them had I met them in the street.
   I started building information on my Dad's family through his sister-in-law, Theoda Gwenn Smith Nocks, who was married to Dad's older brother.  She sent me copies of obituaries and old photos, and got me filled in on the previous two generations of her husband's family.  This was in the mid-1980s, when the internet wasn't easily available, nor was much genealogy information on line, at that time.  I spent a lot of time in the University of Florida archives, reading through old US Federal Censi on microfilm, and hoping to find a break.
   In the late 1980's I was referred to the Church of Latter Day Saints' local research library, and I was able to build my tree even more.  Since the world-wide-web has come into being, with all sorts of information, I have been able to delve even further back.  I am still stuck on my Swedish great-great-grandparents, though.  I have seen three different renderings of their names, but have been unable to locate any of them, separately, or together in the Swedish records that are available (for free) on-line.  I hope to find and document them at some time...
   In the meantime, I have run into quite a few remarkable and memorable names...  Some belong to my family, and some have just caught my eye as I was looking for someone else.  My favorites from family are:  Hepzibah Starbuck (of Nantucket) who married Captain Joshua Hussey, producing the full name of Hepzibah Starbuck Hussey.  It rolls rather pleasantly from the tongue, doesn't it?  Another relative is Hatevil Hall - actually there are more than thirty (30) Hateveil Halls in my family lineage, as each eldest son of each son born into the Hall family, named their first-born son Hatevil.  (And it is pronounced like two words - Hate Evil.)  Some wrote an article about unusual names, and wondered if Hatevil Hall really hated evil.  Well, the first few Hatevil Halls were Quaker elders, so I would say that they did hate evil.  I also have a great-uncle named Eighty One (or Eight One) Mobley - his father George gave most of his children unusual names: Respino, Kilpatrick DeGrosse, Genoa Veve, etc.  Eight One got his name because he was born one minute after midnight on 1 January 1881...   My grandmother's brother was named Robert Raymond Lancaster, and he'd tell the Census-takers that the R. R. stood for different names every ten years - Rocky Road, Rail Ryder, River Raider, and so on.  At least I knew ahead of time that Uncle Ray had a warped sense of humor.
   Recently I have also found the names John Diklis, Joe Fuzee Cretein, Worty Wartes, and a couple named Johnson - the wife was Eused and the husband was Noway....
   If you decide to look into your family tree, I highly recommend the LDS website called Family Search.  You can choose to share your family tree information, or not to do so.  The site can be found at:  https://www.familysearch.org/   

Swedish Family Background

I know that I go overboard in some of my enthusiasms.  Knowing that my Mother was half Swedish and a quarter Danish, I've always had a small interest in my Scandinavian heritage, but I honestly found the British part more interesting.  I have researched our family tree, but still have a few "sticking points" - mainly with my great-grandparents, who had very common Swedish names, and whose names I've been told in an Anglicized manner:  Andrew Johnson and Hannah Olson.  Watching the Vikings series on History Channel has made me want to know more. I want to know more about my family's Swedish heritage and Danish heritage.  I have been able to trace our Danish family back to 1597 in the church records at Gyllinge, Jutland, but our Swedish background remains a mystery to me.
  I know that my great-grandparents sailed to America in 1890 to await the birth of their child, my grandfather, Johan Waldo Johansson.  Poppop was duly born in Hoboken, New Jersey, christened in the Swedish Lutheran Church there, and sailed back to Sweden at the age of two weeks.  I know that he was raised in southern Sweden - a red velvet-covered photograph album was left after his death, filled with hundreds of photos  (and not a single one identified) that had been taken mainly in Karlskrona (at the studio of Karl Karlson), a few in Malmo, and one in Stockholm.  There was also a letter that was written from Christianstad.  There are, of course, many variations of the spelling of Johansson, and one can find a great variance in Andrew: Anders, Andreas, Ander, etc.  There are also many ways to spell Olson, and a few alternative spellings of Hannah.  What I need to do is look at the 1900 church rolls for southern Sweden...
I also know that Grandfather had a brother named Ben, but I have no idea whether Ben was older or younger, born in Sweden or the US...  And I have no idea regarding the ages of Poppop's parents...  *sigh*
This is one of the things that keeps me digging into records.
  I did notice one "odd" thing yesterday - I had been looking at a rune stone, set near Kallby, Sweden.  This stone is inscribed, "Styrlakr placed this stone in memory of (Karr?), his father."  The carving with it looks like someone dressed in a jumpsuit, with delineations of boots, gloves, and waist.  The head appears to be either a canine with droopy ears, or possibly a deer, as there are antlers carved above the head.  Last night, I was looking at a carving found on Baffin Island - it's identified as being a native hunter, carved by the Dorset tribe, who lived on Baffin at the time Vikings from Iceland were known to have visited.  Do you see the similarities, also?  Comments are very welcome!

This photo of the Kallby rune stone was taken by Peter Karlsson.

Dorset hunter carving found on Baffin Island

I Hate Being Ill!

It's nice and bright outside today, but the wind has started to pick up, and the weather forecast is "Windy with a high of 36 degrees." So, even if we get up to 16, it will still feel like it's in the teens... Lovey and Nedi let me sleep in this morning, I'm not sure why, but they did. I wonder if they somehow osmosed what the doctor told me last night: "You're not going to get better unless you rest. Rest, rest, rest!" He listened to my lungs, looked at my ears, nose and throat, and said I still had an acute upper respiratory infection... I now have an inhaler, Tessalon Perles for coughing, and another round of antibiotics. Plus I've been told to stay on bed rest until Valentine's Day... I got him to say it was OK for me to sit up and read, so here I am. Other than walking dogs, I don't have any jobs until the 17th of February, so I've notified the folks that pay me to walk and play with their dogs...
  I enjoyed NCIS and Vegas last night on the television. Yesterday afternoon I spent with my friend Bea, and we had a leisurely lunch at The China Gourmet, then we wandered through Lucky's Market and also visited the newly opened Lucky's Bakehouse and Creamery. It's a good thing that we were so stuffed from lunch, because I lusted after/over almost every single item in the new store. Everything looked tempting and it certainly smelled tempting, too. Then we went to the Carnegie Library and started working on Bea's family tree. Unfortunately, her Mom's surname was Jones, so it's becoming a search for a needle in a haystack, in seeking her Mother's parents. Since they were from Louisiana and had strong ties to the church, I hope to find the answers in Parish records.
  Besides looking for Bea's ancestors and my usual computer play, I am half-way through reading The Man on the Donkey, then I have Wolf Hall to read (thanks to Alexy), and then the next two Chronicles of Camulod books by Jack Whyte. At least I won't be bored!

Native American Blood?

I spent yesterday evening cuddling with Nedi and Lovey, looking at a wide variety of catalogs that had arrived in the mail, and finishing the tenth book in the Foreigner series by C J Cherryh. After Jeopardy! ended, I just turned the TV off and curled up with the kits. It was a nice, relaxed evening. Tonight I'll watch NCIS and Vegas. I'm pretty sure that I identified Randy Quaid as one of the stars of Vegas in a previous blog. Wrong. I was dead wrong. It's Dennis Quaid, not Randy. My apologies if I offended or confused anyone. In any event , I watch these shows because I like to look at David McCallum, Mark Harmon and Brian Dietzen, who plays Jimmy Palmer. (Brian is a little young for me, but his family is local - in Niwot - and he's a very nice young man.) And for some unknown reason, I also like to watch Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis. I think it's Dennis Quaid's voice that I like the most. Of course, I could listen to Sam Elliott 24/7 and never hear enough of his voice...

  In regards to yesterday's blog and the possibility of having Native Americans on Dad's paternal side of the family - well, that just might be true... but it's something that cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. First, in 1676, my 13th-great grandfather was hung by the neck until dead at the order of Governor Berkeley in Jamestown, Virginia. Captain James Crewes (aka Crews) had helped incite what is now known as Bacon's Rebellion. Crews left his property and monies to his son-in-law, but did not mention his daughter Hannah directly in his will. That has been the cause of a lot of speculation. Crews married twice to English women, but he also had a female Native American, whom he was licensed by the government "to keep." There is no real documentation on who was Hannah's mother - either Crews' Indian squaw , reputed to be related to King Powhatan and Pocahontas, or his white wives. Crews could have designated his daughter Hannah as his heir, but he chose to name his son-in-law. This has made some people think that Hannah was half Native American, which would have made unable to legally inherit anything; as there was a law on the books that Englishmen could not consort with, or marry, Natives. As I said, there is a lot of debate as to whether this is true or not... There is no hard proof.

  Second, my great grandmother might have been half Cherokee. James Loren Nocks, my great grandfather, married Nancy Elizabeth Busey, the daughter of Singleton Wilson Busey. Singleton led quite a life, and during the Civil War, was a bigamist. He lived in three places in two adjoining states, had three wives (and children with each wife), and served in the Civil War under three names, with each term of service going for a pension for each of his wives. One of his wives was a woman on the Cherokee reservation, and Singleton served in the Kansas Indian Home Guard. We have the story that Nancy was the daughter of Singleton and Nancy Goodwin. But we have no proof which of the wives was actually Nancy's mother - she is not mentioned in any Census until she pops up at the age of 16 in her father's household. So... who was her mother? 'Tis a mystery.

Monday Morning Sun

It looks like the beginning of a gorgeous week; even though I still want rain.  The sun is shining, it's in the low 60s, crows and ravens are calling, robins and sparrows are singing, squirrels are talking, and my kits are outside, observing all of it.  I've had a turkey and sage sausage and a mango-pineapple smoothie for breakfast; and have taken care of the critters, plants and gardens at both houses I'm caring for.  I need to be back at one by 8:30 to let the housekeeper inside, then I'll walk next door and grab the red kids for their walk.  Sister Kathy begins work again today - her first day back since she broke her shoulder on April 14.  Sunflower is "easing" her back into work - this week, instead of working 10 to 6, Monday through Friday, she'll be working from 10 to 2 on each day except Wednesday, when she'll be off, to assess her strength.  And if her left arm gives her problems, she can cut back her scheduled hours of work; they are really being kind to her rehabilitation work.
   I've read all of my library books, and need to go visit that public institution again.  Since I'm not at home, I'm not getting any work done on the Snow and Sanborn family tree on-line.  That's the only "bad" thing about being away from home - except for the awful part of not being with the kits as much as I want to be.  I really don't think that Lovey and Nedi would mind moving into the house with Tessa, Lily, Dhisana, and Lyra; but I know that Lily would be upset, and, as she is queen of the house, I don't want to upset her.
    I'm also looking into the birth parents of a friend who was adopted - I've been able to trace her mothers families to England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, and South Africa.  I've just discovered her father's information, and will soon be at work on his roots.
    Saturday is the running of the Belmont Stakes.  I really hope that I'll Have Another becomes the newest Triple Crown winner.   And I'm also looking forward to July 25  and 26 - this year's dates of the annual Chincoteague Pony Penning and auction.  As always, I'll want to be there.....

A Quiet Wednesday Morning

Boulder reached 89 degrees yesterday, breaking an 80-year-record.  Today, a front is passing through, and we hope to have a high temperature of 72.  It's grey outside, even though the sun is shining; there are just a few streaks of snow left on the Indian Peaks and Mount Audubon.  Forecasts are for thunder and lightning storms this afternoon, and then highs in the 60s for the rest of the week.  My kits are outside, observing the birds, squirrels and insects.  I stayed at home yesterday, read and did research.  One of my neighbors gave me an interesting job - find information on her birth parents.  I've been able to trace her maternal grandparents back to 1788; but her maternal grandfather appears from nowhere - no family history, no family ties, and not in any Census until after he marries the grandmother...  It's a fun puzzle.  I'll go to the library after walking the red kids today - first, because I need more books to read, and, second, to use Ancestry.com free on the library PCs.  Maybe I'll be able to find something else about the grandfather....
   Not much going on here - the Poudre Canyon fire is completely contained, and fire fighters are now performing clean-up details there in Larimer County.  ....  Peyton Manning appeared in a volunteer Broncos' three-day practice - the public wasn't allowed in, but the press was. ....  Meadowbrook Farm, the birth place of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, was sold several years ago to a group that was producing the Virginia State Fair.  The property went into foreclosure, and was sold again this week for $5.35 million. ....  I'll be staying at Lynn Thore's house beginning Friday; then switching over to the Munsinger home.
   This Monday the Bolder Boulder 10k race will be run - but, for once, I won't be sitting here at the edge of the parking lot and yelling to encourage the runners.  I'll be staying in North Boulder.  Kathy is scheduled to walk the course, and Jim is scheduled to run it.  It looks like I'll drive them in to a drop-off point near the starting line,  and will come pick them up when the race is over and the crowds have cleared a bit.  (I'll probably visit the kits Sunday night, and then again Monday evening...)

A Day "Off"

I usually have a day "off" on Tuesdays - I don't walk dogs, and I'm currently not house-sitting, so I have the day free.  Well, I still get up at 5:30, feed the kits and clean the litter boxes (but I occasionally go back to bed, afterwards).  But I don't have anything planned that I must do - sometimes I clean house, sometimes I do laundry, sometimes I wander the Pearl Street Mall, sometimes I go to Denver.  Today, I might go to the library, but other than that, I plan on staying at home - especially since we're expecting a high around 90 degrees today.  It's already in the low 70s, at 8 a.m.  My kits are out chasing squirrels and birds in the back yard, and then taking a break and lying in the cool dirt at the bottom of the fence.  I already have the window and the patio door wide open, with the curtains drawn, as they face east; I've had breakfast and read all my usual news sites on the web.  I'll probably play with genealogy today.
   I finally up-loaded the new version of the Snow family tree yesterday afternoon/evening.  That was 242 pages, which I can only send to the Rootsweb page at a rate of 4 pages per "send" package.  So it took nearly 2 and a half hours to get all those pages sent to the system; then I had to up-load the GED.com file, which luckily, takes only about 2 minutes...  That's the only complaint I have about doing family trees.  But, of course, I was putting up information on 5,600 individual people - so I really can't complain.  I still haven't finished checking the dates and off-spring of the Sanborn family, and I still have another half of the family to enter data about....  Ai, yi, yi....
  I have my fans set up, but not yet plugged in, for use this afternoon.  I hope the weather forecasters are wrong.

The Weekend

Yesterday the peaks were snow covered; today they are three-quarters bare of cover.  It wasn't particularly warm yesterday, we had periodic rain showers, but I think the wind was the factor that removed the snow.  A light Chinook was blowing most of the day.  The Snow family and I got together to celebrate Sarah's birthday (a day late) at Reubens Bistro in the afternoon, and I got home in time to see Finding Your Roots on PBS.  Saturday evening I spent a couple of hours with Rosie and Remy, and I'm getting ready to head back over to walk them this morning.  My kits are enjoying the sunshine, even though Lovey keeps running in to check on me every 5 minutes or so.
  I found the other day that I can no longer multi-task doing important things.  I was watching the video of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition sing "Just Dropped In to See What Condition..."; I was really into the music and was tapping my fingers along with the beat.  That was when there was a close-up of Kenny Rogers, and I realized that it looked like my nephew Mike.  I was also working on my brother-in-law's family tree. His maternal family has a large number of members, and (thank goodness!) a relative documented the family up to 1898.  In my enjoyment of the music, and the startling sight of "my nephew" on the video, I managed to click the mouse twice.  Once to delete the original citation, and once to say, yes, of course I want to do that.  As I was clicking the second time, I realized that I had just erased the citation documenting over 3,000 relatives for Jim's family.  I freaked.  My cousin Sarah told me to do a system recovery, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I did the recovery.  Then I realized that my PC thinks my family tree is a document, so the system recovery did not work.  I have spent the past week trying to get all the citations back onto the various relatives...   Aieee!
   The clouds cleared just in time for Boulder to see last night's eclipse of the sun.  ....  Gary Sinese and the Lt. Dan Band played in Parker yesterday (I would have gone, had I been aware of it).   ....  I'll Have Another has arrived at Belmont Park, and will begin to prepare for the final race in the Triple Crown.  Jockey Steve Cauthen, who was aboard Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner in 1978, compared the two chestnuts yesterday, and said that he believes that I'll Have Another can win the Belmont, too.  He stated that the compact chestnut colt has the same quiet drive and will to win that Affirmed possessed. ....  Tangier Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, is disappearing into the  Bay.  The water level is rising, there is a good deal of soil erosion from the waves, and there is land subsidence, all contributing to the permanent loss of land.  From the air, Tangier used to look like a fish hook - now it looks like a teardrop.  The island town of Saxis, in Accomack County, is also disappearing.  If breakwaters and dredging are not done quickly, both of these towns with 400 years of history apiece will soon sink under the waters....

Good Luck, Eli, and the Giants

It's bright and sunny here; and it's 19 degrees outside.  I have the patio door open about 12 inches, and I'm sitting here in jeans, socks, and a T-shirt.  The kits seem to be disgusted by the fact that there is still more than 20 inches of snow in the back yard - at least the sun's heat on the patios has created small melts where our patio walls jut out, so the kits can run up and down the apartment block.  Both kits have jumped out into the snow, sunk, and have come blasting back inside for me to towel them (mostly) dry. Nedi is still out on the patio, soaking up sunshine; Lovey is sitting on the corner of my desk, making comments.  (I have Meet the Press on, and every time Newt Gingrich pauses for breath, Lovey meows at him.) Oh, and we officially had 24.5 inches of snow from Thursday night through Saturday noon.  A couple of miles above Nederland, our closest ski resort, Eldora, received over 31 inches of snow - and yesterday they ran out of parking, and had to turn people away.
  Last night I was trying to follow a set of sisters and brothers who married in the late 1800s in Missouri.  The sisters were Barbara Allen Snow and Oddie Pauline Snow; they married brothers John S. Colley and Elijah Walker Colley.  The brothers were sons of a man also named Elijah Walker Colley.  Ancestry.com has Oddie Pauline Snow marrying her father-in-law (who died when she was 2 years old) and having seven children.  Most of the LDS records show Barbara marrying John in 1887, and then John marrying Oddie in 1895 - they are wrong.  I had to pour over the US Census for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 , and local county records, to finally get all the wrinkles ironed out....   You know I collect certain names that just "stick" in my memory; I think I'll be adding Oddie Snow Colley to Hepzibah Starbuck Hussey and Eliphalet Pease.
  I am looking forward to the Super Bowl this afternoon (kick off is at 4:30 here), and I'm looking forward to the new ads.  I hope that my cheering for the New York Giants and Eli Manning doesn't adversely affect them.  It'd be cool for Eli to win a Super Bowl on his brother's home field!

Snow?!?

This morning there was a beautiful sunrise, and I walked to the store under gorgeous skies.  At that time, a few low clouds were sitting on top of Flagstaff Mountain and the Flatirons.  Less than 90 minutes later, we are totally socked in by low grey clouds.  It's 32 degrees outside, and we're not expected to get any warmer during the day; there might be snow this afternoon and/or evening.  (The dusk-to-dawn lights at the hotel behind me turned off for all of 35 minutes, before automatically turning back on...)  And the weather person just said that we'll have a high of 48 tomorrow and 60 on Sunday.... hmmmmm.  Isn't it still January?  Is this what global warming is doing to us?  Or is it just La Nina?

Nedi just came running inside and hid under the bed.  I looked out to see what was going on, and discovered that a group of people were hooting and hollering over in the hotel parking lot.... because it is now snowing.  There are large flakes floating down; actually, they aren't floating.  These are heavy wet  flakes that are falling - not the light-weight icy crystals that dance in the wind.  Since we're just expecting a very light snow, I'll be heading out to grab Remy and Rosie for their walk in a bit.  Yesterday, we walked over to Wonderland Lake, and made a new friend.  We met Tundra, a half German Shepherd half Huskie, who was very happy to make new friends.  (We shared a lamb, sweet potato and pea treat.)  Then we met a new Lab-mix, and behaved well at that point, too. 

I had a good time examining a branch of the Snow family tree last night - one of the ladies lost her husband just after 13 years of marriage.  She lived to be 101, owned her own cloth factory business, had her sons join in the business, added a bank and opera house to the businesses, built several schools for girls, and opened a retirement home for older ladies (at the age of 93!).  She was born in 1790, and passed away in 1891.  She had quite a life, starting out as the youngest daughter of 12 children, with her parents hard-scrabble farmers on a rocky piece of high property in New Hampshire.  She died a multi-millionaire, and was making business decisions with her sons up until a week before her death.  She certainly saw a lot of change....  If you're interested in her story, you can read it in the Hebron Historical Society newsletter, starting on page 3 of the .pdf document (you will need an Adobe Reader, a free down load, to read this article):  http://www.hebronhistsoc.org/HHS_Gaz_6-1.pdf 

Wheeeee!

We had a wind gust of 104 mph here yesterday morning.  It knocked down quite a few trees, but there has been surprisingly little damage done.  I walked the red kids at noon yesterday; we met 6 new dogs, and the Rs were acting perfectly.  And I remember at least 6 people going by and yelling, "Handsome dogs!"  Of course, there is something about a full-coated Irish Setter, with that rich red coat gleaming in the sun, that makes it look stunning...  After walking the kids and picking up my prescriptions, I returned home, had a bowl of soup, and headed off to Bonfils Blood Center, where I donated a special O- pack for babies.  (They called me just before I left to walk the Rs.)  Last night I thoroughly enjoyed watching Person of Interest while Lovey laid stretched out across my lap.  The kits are currently outside, playing in the sun and the light wind. - The Chinook blew off and on all night, but this morning, the gusts are few and far between; I'll walk the Rs at 11 today.
Kathy and I will see the movie The Descendants this afternoon, then we are due to have dinner at Radda's, and old-fashioned Italian restaurant.  I've looked at the menu and already seen the one thing that I can eat, so I know what I'll be ordering.  Yesterday, while walking the dogs, I had the theme from "Rawhide" running through my head; I hope it's something different today.
Still working on double-checking the Snow family information - have found 3 parental mistakes so far, and am trying to find the real names of the parents that were reported incorrectly.   I've been able to track down two sets of parents, but haven't been able to trace the third set.  They have been reported incorrectly in both the LDS and Rootsweb databases, and the man is not listed in any Census until he is 34 years old.  No one with that surname, those Christian names, nor that birth date are anywhere in the previous Census records.  I'm about to let this guy slide until my next checking trip....

Family Trees

Boy, I just crashed yesterday after walking Rosie, Remy and Lucy. I got home and pretty much fell in the bed - and stayed there until this morning. I guess my flu is still keeping me wiped out physically. This afternoon, after I walk the same above named three, I'll be headed over to Lynn's house to stay with Tessa and the three kits until Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow would be my husband's 63rd birthday - I still miss him. And I get to visit Dr. Pohlman for my fistula tomorrow morning, too. Oh, joy. I received an e-mail from a gentleman in Wiltshire, England this morning - it appears that he is related to Jeff's great-grandmother's family, the Gingells. It was nice to get his message, which I passed on to Kevin, Etoye and Sue - it made me feel like I needed to do more work on getting the Devine, Snow, Johnson and Nocks family trees added on to and brought up to date... It's a glorious day outside - light winds and a high in the low 60s expected. Lovey and Nedi are having a ball running in and out, as usual.
And I just had to laugh - John Hickenlooper, our new governor, is just as big a klutz as I am - he tripped and fell against a wooden shotgun case and had to get 5 stitches in his head.

Names

We broke the record for high temperature yesterday - got all the way up to 77, and I had the patio door open up until 7 last night... The kits had a ball running in and out, and Gimpy twice demanded that I refill his nut supply. I walked the Rs yesterday - they were excited to see me, as usual; and we walked to the assisted living home and visited a few of our friends, then wandered the neighborhood, and played chase the bone and chase the lamb for about 30 minutes with Suki and Boo. When I returned the Rs to their house, I found all the gates open and a group of about 8 people working in the yards and gardens; so I took the dogs inside, and kept them in their harness while I checked to be certain that all the French doors were closed and locked, and that the doggie door in the den was also closed and locked. Then I removed their harnesses and gave them treats, and told them what wonderful friends and companions they are. Besides walking Remy and Rosie today, I plan on watching the Breeders Cup races and doing more family tree research.

I touched base with some of my best friends in Florida yesterday - spent 90 minutes on the phone with Jack, my adopted brother, and then 2 hours yakking at and with Kathryn. Afterwards, I felt totally at peace, which I haven't felt in a while. And I've been going through what I have of Mom's family tree on-line, and trying to fill in any blanks I find. I found that one of the relatives, a John B. Lynch, started up a new Holiness church sect on Chincoteague back in 1892. I had no idea that that was so. I must admit that I couldn't figure out why a lot of Chincoteague relations were buried in Perry, Georgia at the "Christ's Sanctified Holy Church Campground Memorial Gardens;" now I know why. Jack and I discussed odd names in our family trees, and said he felt sorry for a boy in a small town named Irwin Coody (you know he got teased mercilessly about having cooties) and I told him that I wished I knew how people pronounced some of the older names I've come across, like Mephibosheth. At least I know that the Chincoteaguers spoke, and some of the elders still speak, a form of Elizabethan English that has been preserved since our folks immigrated from England... and I can usually figure out unusual Chincoteague names, just because Mom grew up there and I've spent so much time there. But some of the Puritan and Down East names really throw me for a loop!